We love Laos: "I love you, no problem!"

The past two weeks of our life went by in a blink of an eye. Looking back, I wonder how we could have ever considered skipping Laos and how different our perspective on life and traveling is now that we have had such a wonderful experience. Laos is the highlight of Southeast Asia. Despite being widely known as the most bombed country in history, the Laos people are the most content, welcoming group of individuals I have ever met in my life. When we started traveling we were told that the most important thing to do is to immerse ourselves in the culture. Fellow travelers harp that more time in less places is the way to go and it is essential to talk to strangers. Although we thought we were doing an alright job of this, it was not until we left Laos that I realized we had a truly unique experience and that for the the first time on our trip we really got to know the locals personally.

Vang Vieng is notorious for luring in travelers who seem to get "stuck" there after falling in love. Westerners spend the whole day tubing down a gorgeous river surrounded by limestone mountains. To make matters more interesting, the river is lined with bars made from bamboo (which look like they could crumble at any moment), fully equipped with rope swings and volleyball courts. What more could you need? A helmet might have been smart. Then, after tubing the day away, you return to the town center only to watch endless episodes of "Friends," played in virtually every restaurant. I have a new found love for the TV show and actually relate my life to "Friends" episodes on a daily basis. It is sick and wonderful all in one.

We were lucky enough to be in Vang Vieng for the New Year. It is known as the "water festival" because for 3 days straight there is basically one huge water fight in order to celebrate the New Year (based on the Indian calendar). Locals and westerners alike stand on street corners, ride in the back of trucks, and run around town with super soakers, all with one goal in mind: to drench any dry piece of clothing in the area. These people take mercy on no one. Whether you have a camera in hand, just arrived in town with your luggage, or are 100 years old...you are getting wet. Everyone is in high spirits (per usual in Laos) and it makes for a really good time. What makes the New Year especially great is that the area was jam packed with even more Laos people than usual. We went down to the river to drink, dance, laugh, sing, and swim with the locals. They pass around glasses of beer and someone is always walking around with shots of Lao Lao (local whiskey = poison) that you are not allowed to refuse. One morning when Jess and I arrived at work (yes, we got a job...more on that coming up) we were accosted by a group of about 10 Laos people who were having an early morning celebration. We don't know what they were saying but they loved us...this they were able to convey with the only English they could muster up: "Thank you, for you!" and "I love you, no problem!". Now we know the proper response when someone says "I love you"...it's "NO PROBLEM!". Once again, they would not let us refuse beer and lao lao....at 9am. We drank, danced, and laughed endlessly for hours, only to see them hop in their cars and leave, taking everything (including our sanity) with them, never to return again. This debauchery went on for three days straight, after which I was exhausted and a little tired of being constantly drenched with water! Nevertheless, it was a ridiculous amount of fun and hopefully I will be back again for the festival.

And yes, it is true...we got a job. Well, technically it was a "job," but I am not sure you can consider it working. We were hired by a somewhat eccentric (but wonderful) Aussie named James to work at "Joker Bar" on the island in town. The bar is owned by a local man named Phai Vanh, who refused to be called "Boss," but instead preferred to be called "friend friend!" We loved everything about him and the bar, including his gorgeous wife, Jan, and children, Joker (hence the name of the bar) and Cutter. Here is a picture of Joker and Cutter:

This was a typical day at "work": wake up, go to the bar, Jan cooked us food, talk for awhile with our co-workers/friends, take a rickshaw to the river, talk to people tubing, give them "free hugs" (we were the only bar in town with free hugs!) in attempt to get them to come the bar later that night, return to the town, shower, Jan cooked us. In return for all of this hard work, we received accommodation, food, and drinks. Basically, all of our costs were taken care of and we were doing exactly what we would have been anyway...and we had a reason to hug anyone we wanted! Jess abused this right, running around town with "FREE HUGS!" written across her body in permanent marker. It was definitely a sight to be seen.

Anyhow, we were supposed to be in town for 2 days and ended up staying over 2 weeks. When we announced that we intended to leave, the family had a "going away" ceremony for us. This was probably one of the most unique, special things that I have ever been part of and one of the reasons why I ever wanted to travel in the first place. We arrived at their house at 8am for the ceremony to be greeted by most of Phai Vonh's immediate family. They cooked us a traditional Laos meal (I could still see the head on the chicken), literally fed us one by one, and then had each of us put out our hands out. In one hand they put a glass of Lao Lao and in the other they tied a string around our wrist while saying a prayer or wish for our travels. We are supposed to keep the strings on until they fall off. After we stomached the lao lao, we were handed beer after beer and watched traditional Laos dancing. James and I were entertained by a drunken Jess attempting to master this dance. All in all, I could try and describe this experience in words but it would be impossible. These people welcomed us into their home after knowing us for only a week or two and were actually sad to be seeing us go! The whole thing brought Jess, James, and I to tears and we all vow to return next year to "work" for this wonderful family again.

After 2 weeks and changing our tickets 3 days in a row, we finally left. I had to practically drag Jess (kicking and screaming) so that we could make our overnight bus to Bangkok and then our flight to Hong Kong. After a somewhat disastrous first night in Hong Kong, we had a nice 3 day stay. We walked the streets of the city (reminding us of NYC), watched the largest light show in the world, climbed the Victoria Peak (in a tram car) to see the foggy view, and shopped in various markets. At the moment we are in Shanghai, excited to eat some Chinese food and brave the streets of China with absolutely no knowledge of the language. Should be an interesting couple of weeks!

Adventures in Cambodia and over the border to Laos

I can't tell you the number of times I open up this website and don't know what to write about. A lot of the things that I find amusing throughout the day cannot be explained with words and other instances, in retrospect, do not seem to be particularly newsworthy. Hours of karaoke on long bus rides remains to be the most entertaining TV we have seen in 5 months. Taking 10 minutes to bargain the price of a pineapple from 1 dollar down to 25 cents is an everyday occurrence. A woman in Phnom Penh who followed us for 20 minutes and insisted on spraying us with water (although annoying) is one of many strange characters we have stumbled upon. Being told we bought a "direct" ticket only to find out that we in fact have to take a mini-van, walk 200 meters, hop on a boat, take another mini-van, switch into a truck, and then take another boat to our destination, is now expected in our travels. These are things that we have become numb to but, in all honesty, make our days all the more exciting. That being said, it has been over a week since I have last written and in that time we have seen quite a bit and endured our fair share of hassles. Here goes...

I guess I will start with Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We got there just in time to soak up some much needed AC in the US Embassy and have extra pages added to our passports (it's crazy that they are already full!). Since we were convinced by some random guy that Laos is the place to be, we decided that we would go and, therefore, needed to wait a couple days in Phnom Penh for our visas.

We got a small glimpse into the brutality of the Khmer Rouge when we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Ironically, this is a former high school turned into the Security Prison-21 (S-21), which was functioning up until 1979. The prisoners were accused of betraying the party or revolution and were usually tortured and exterminated within a month of arrival. To make a bad situation even worse, the majority of the time the family members of the accused were also taken in and found a similar fate; children were not spared. Though I will not go into detail on how the prisoners were treated, if you want some further reading here is the Tuol Sleng wikipedia website. It is both horrible and horrifying that a place like S-21 was functioning so recently and no one “knew” about it...or, maybe ignorance was bliss and ignoring it was what our western governments felt suitable. A couple of years ago I went to a concentration camp in Germany and I found Tuol Sleng similarly revolting.

The museum was not all around uplifting, so we decided we needed to go shopping. Therefore, the next stop was the Russian Market. Let me tell you...TJ Max and Marshalls ain’t got nothing on this market when it comes to “brand name clothes for less.” There were countless stalls with clothes from Zara, Hollister, American Eagle, Abercrombie, etc. priced anywhere from 1 to 5 dollars! This wasn’t any post season sale either...they had some good stuff. That being said, we got there right when it was closing and decided we would come back the following day. We returned thinking we would just wonder around for about an hour and then head off to some other tourist site, 5 hours later we were still trying on dresses and going through massive piles of shirts. In the end, our budget got the better of us and we both only left with one or two essentials. Clearly, we are poor.

From Phnom Penh we headed straight to Siem Reap, the location of the temples of Angkor. They definitely live up to their hype. The numerous temples and buildings were all constructed sometime during the mighty Angkorian period between the 9th and 15th centuries. The first stop on our trip was to Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the entire world. The structure itself is in surprisingly good condition and the bass relief carvings are clear as day. What is so overwhelming about these temples is their magnitude: they are HUGE! I got tired doing construction with my dad and we had electricity! Apparently all of the stones were taken from a mountain 50 miles away, transported by way of river in the wet season and by elephants in the dry. Crazy. After wondering around the area for a couple hours, the next stop on our temple tour was Ta Phrom. I have to say, this was by far my favorite stop. Part of the jungle was cleared in order to construct this temple and over the years the jungle has basically taken back its territory. Trees grow threw windows and knock over walls, creating a big mess out of what remains. It should also be noted that this was a film location for Angelina Jolie’s movie “Tomb Raider.” Now I understand why she adopted a Cambodian boy! Here we are in Ta Phrom.
Our last stop of the day was Angkor Thom, a larger complex of temples, palaces, pools, and other things that were all overwhelming in the heat. The most impressive of the bunch was the Bayon, a temple that is marked by 54 large Buddha heads. All in all, the temples of Angkor were awesome and the area of Siem Reap, although very touristy, was pretty cool and I would have liked a little more time. Alas, our time is limited and we had to head out towards Laos. Little did we know what we were in for.

For the most part, we tend to take the road more traveled. We like surprises but we also like our lonely planet and tend to take the advice they offer. However, this time around when the guidebook said “you will be in for a real adventure if you go through the Cambodian-Laos border," we decided an adventure is what we needed in our lives (plus it was the only way we could go). Maybe it would be fun? To make a very long story short, we got into various fights with our taxi/mini-van drivers who tried to rip us off and over-crowd our vehicles, had our bags held hostage for the equivalent of 3 US dollars, and ended up staying an extra night in a town in the middle of nowhere near the border of Laos. Surely this it was an adventure...but fun? I think not. Maybe we will laugh about it next week.

First stop in Laos was Don Det, one of the 4,000 islands on the Cambodian-Laos border. The sights are beautiful and calming...when you can stand the heat. I can’t believe just how hot it gets here and how lethargic it makes you feel! Yesterday Jess and I rented some bikes and checked out some impressive waterfalls until Jess got a flat tire. I ditched her to check out the rest of the island with the energy I had left and took tons of pictures, which should now be posted. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the Mekong River, conveniently located in our front yard.

Right now we are waiting for an overnight bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. I'm not sure how long we will be there, but we will be definitely be looking for some AC.

More Thailand and back to US dollars

After 48 hours of traveling we have made it back to a land where they accept good ole American dollars (for the little that they are worth!) and drive on the right side of the road. No mom, I didn't come home without telling you....we are in Cambodia.

Before making our way east, we spent about a week more in Southern Thailand with Halley, Megan, and Kerri. Other than relaxing, the highlight of our remaining time in Ton Sai was probably our St. Patty's Day celebration. We were able to find a Irish Pub, fully equipped with green beer, orange, white, and green hair coloring, Guinness, and a live Irish band. What more could we ask for? It felt like we were celebrating in south Boston.

A couple of days later we took a short overnight trek from Ton Sai to Koh Phangan, the site of the infamous full moon parties. Being that the island gets really crowded around the time of the party, we didn't really know where to go and what to do for accommodation. We arrived at 6am and basically sat on the side of the road until someone found us. This method has worked out wonderfully for us in the past, so we figured we would take our chances on actively doing nothing. Luckily, someone found us and he got us a free ride to Haad Khom, a beach on the northern part of the island. When we got there we knew it would be perfect; it was away from the all day debauchery of the full moon party and we got a cheap bungalow for about 300 Baht a night (10 dollars). Haad Kohm is basically what comes to mind when you think of a beach on an island in Thailand: it was quiet, had a rope swing from a palm tree, great snorkeling, and a bunch of foreigners with dreads who came a long time ago and never got on the ferry to leave. The owner of the guesthouse, Mr. Wong, became our Thai father; he took us on all kinds of errands and basically chauffeured us around in the back of his truck whenever we needed a ride to town. After the full moon party we bid farewell to the girls and ended up staying a bit longer in Haad Khom to lay on the beach. On Easter we decided to be daring and rented a motorbike to drive into town. Although we didn't get hurt, this was a bad idea. That's all I have to say about that.

When we finally mustered up the will to leave Koh Phangan, we started our journey to Cambodia. It wasn't until we arrived on the other side of the border that we realized it took us almost 2 full days to get here. Right now we are in Sihanoukville, on the southern coast of Cambodia. Of course, when we got here Jess wasted no time heading to the beach. When I finally arrived, I found her surrounded by 7 little girls; they all wanted to either paint her toe nails or make her bracelets. Each of them spoke perfect English and were on their mid-day school break. Although a bit overwhelming, they entertained us thoroughly. Jess ended up getting her nails done and left with 3 braclets...I got 6. To their delight, we gave them a dollar each, ensuring that we were going to be best friends for life. I think we will avoid this beach from now on...those girls were more expensive than our hotel room!

We plan on heading further east tomorrow, then up north to the capital to get more pages in our passport, then northwest to check out the Temples of Angkor.

New pictures of Thailand are up, so check em out!

Paradise

As I sit here at the computer writing this post I am looking out at the beach in Ton Sai, Thailand. To say that this is paradise would be no lie and we have no intention of leaving anytime soon. Basically, we have loved this country from the moment we stepped off the plane and hopped in our hot pink taxi to our Asian palace (aka the Marriott, courtesy of Mr. Hayden's reward points). The hotel was fully equipt with a pool, exercise room, flat screen TV, shower you can sit in, men who bow down to you every time you walk in the door, and most importantly: air conditioning. Who would ever want to leave? NOT US. That's right, we were in Bangkok for 4 days and left the hotel room for only the essentials: McDonald's, Auntie Annes, and Dairy Queen. Actually, I wouldn't want to exaggerate...we did leave to do our laundry. Any by "do our laundry" I mean put our laundry in a machine in the middle of the sidewalk behind where some lady runs her very successful pad-thai food stall. There was no dryer, so we constructed a clothesline in our room, making it a sure thing that we can turn the nicest suite in all of Bangkok into a pigsty.

A couple days after getting to Thailand we met up with Jess's friends from high school (Hally and Megan) who have been living here teaching English. We managed to adopt a new travel partner for the past week (their friend from study abroad, Eric) who is on spring break. It's nice to have some new people to talk to and Jess seems to be enjoying the familiar faces. We are still with them now in Ton Sai and will probably stay together for a bit as we have similar travel plans. This beach that we have stumbled upon is absolutely gorgeous and probably surpases the beauty of my previously favorite place in Brazil (Floripa). There are tons of activities to do including rock climbing, kayaking, and hiking. Yesterday we took a day trip to Kho Phi Phi, the island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We got to go snorkeling and checked out the site, which is preserved by the government. No one is allowed to live there, which is nice because everything around here is getting so built up and touristy. There is not much else to report as we basically have been sitting around doing nothing for the past week, recovering from our tiring trip through India. I know, we lead a difficult life.

OK, that's all for now...I have to go eat sticky rice and watch the sunset. Yes, my life is awesome.

Til' next time, India

I apologize to those of you who were alarmed by my last entry. I am hearing through the grapevine that I scared you all with our tales of thieves and stomach parasites. BUT, all is well and we are really enjoying our time here in India, despite some minor setbacks.

I don't know if you are up to date with the Indian celeb magazines, but if you find the opportunity to grab the latest, you'll see your two favorite travelers on the cover. Since the last entry we have toured through the city of Mysore, where we became a bigger attraction than the sites we went to see. At first we were flattered, thinking it was based purely on our good looks, but when requests came for a song, I realized they thought we were famous (being blonde and American and all). Our favorite was when an Indian guy told us his friends mistook us for J.Lo, seeing as we are Latino. In all honestly, there are more photos of us floating around on Indian cameras than on our own and we will probably be gracing the living rooms of various homes throughout southern India. Although the organized tour was sadly unimpressive, there were 2 parts that were really memorable (not counting the various photo shoots): the Mysore Palace and the Brindavan Gardens. As we walked through the rooms it was easy to pretend we were in a Disney movie...so we sang some Aladdin hits we all know and love (including but not limited to "A Whole New World" and "Prince Ali"). The Gardens were best once the sun set and the lights lit up the fountains. Luckily we caught the tail end of the fountain light show in which the water was synchronized first to American techno and secondly to traditional Indian songs. India is the land of extremes.

Next stop after Mysore was Kochi in the state of Kerala. Kerala is known for it's backwaters and for good reason. We decided to take a day tour which first took us on a houseboat (you could sleep on it...we didn't have the cash for that) through the larger canals and natural lake and then on smaller boats through the man made canals. Beyond the beautiful sights, we learned all about herbs and coconut trees...all things that we thought were extremely insightful at the time but have no true recollection of now that a couple days have passed. Whoops. Our day was made all the better by an older Indian couple who made it their personal mission to educate us on Indian history and geography throughout the day. They had a way of making the ugliest trees look magnificent and the most boring subjects intriguing. Plus, the fact that they could hardly walk yet were jumping in and out of boats because we said they should inspired us to travel forever! Sorry Mom.

Next on the itinerary was a slow (really slow) public boat through the backwaters, yet again. This was a really great ride because we got to see how the locals get around the area. The boat stopped anywhere, on any island where someone waved them down. The clientèle ranged from businessmen (sporting classy button down shirts with sheet skirts), to schoolgirls, to guys hauling their coconuts from their island to the mainland. It was awesome. After yet another bus ride we arrived in Kumily.

Our main reason for going to Kumily was to see some animals at the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Ironically, the majority of our fun was found outside the sanctuary and didn't involve wildlife in the least. Our first day was spent checking out the tea plantations with 2 tour guides. One of them knew absolutely nothing about tea but spoke great English, while the second was extremely knowledgeable but knew not one word of English....together they made one great tour guide. It was pathetic how obsessed we were with tea. We wanted all the information they could possibly give us and then some more. On our little tour we went into a tea factory, at which point we were consumed by the glorious smell of tea making! It was like breathing in a cup of tea! I couldn't get enough. We also saw some of the ladies who pick the tea leaves, who get paid a whopping 80 rupees (2 dollars) for the first 45 kilos they pick and 2 rupees (5 cents) for every kilo after that. Think of them the next time you throw out a tea bag. Our perfect day was made all the better when the owner of the tea shop gave us a tour of his spice garden. When his kids weren't running amok, he was able to show us various plants (coffee, vanilla, cardamom, all-spice, cinnamon...) that we would have otherwise thought were weeds. He fed us a cup and tea and we went on our way. It was refreshing to encounter such a generous man who didn't want anything in return.

The next day we actually went into the wildlife sanctuary....what a let down! We took a boat ride and spotted some buffalo. Well, they might have been buffalo..or they might have been bison (don't know the difference)...or they could have been dead bushes in the distance...who knows!??! We will have to take their word for it that the black spots were indeed buffalo. In order to make up for the dud of a boat ride, we let some lady rope us into taking an elephant ride. We were an easy sell as all Jess wanted for her birthday was to get on one of these darned elephants we have seen roam the streets. While it was exciting at first, it quickly turned depressing when we realized we were supporting animal cruelty. To the elephant mans dismay, rather than pay to ride the elephant, we fed her some fruit and went on our way.

From Kumily we headed to Puducherry, where we are right now. Tonight we took a Yoga class and tomorrow we are heading north to catch our flight back to Mumbai in a couple days. Our trip to India has been an eye opening, interesting experience that I wouldn't trade for the world. We have taken the good with the bad and are leaving wishing we were better prepared to spend more time here. Coupled with it's poverty and lurking smells, India is gorgeous, has an engulfing culture, great food and, as we have come to find, is not as intimidating as those of you at home might think.

And finally, if I can give you all one word of advice...go to the store and buy some cardamom tea. I don't know where you can buy it, but find it and drink it. You will love it. Oh yea...go to an Indian restaurant too.